Everyone knows that with anything in life that the only way to get better at something is practice. It’s something that I am trying to teach my 14-year old cousin who is having problems in Language Arts. He asked my help with this because his reading and writing are not up to par. I had a brilliant idea. Kids nowadays are all about Facebook and the Internet, so why not use that to help him? I created a blog for him and asked him to write in it every day. Also, he needs to read a chapter a day in a book and tell me about it. I know that it helped me.
When I was in college, I was studying for Computer Science and was working as a System Administrator for several years. Technology was something that I was obsessed with since I was a little girl. However, I felt like something was missing. I didn’t know what, but I soon found out after I had my son. Even though I wasn’t the best Writer, I loved it. I soon found out that a career in the computer field wasn’t for me; I needed writing as well. Therefore, I changed my concentration to English where I could be a Technical Writer. At first, I didn’t know what I was thinking. Writing wasn’t one of my strong points, and I remember having to work harder than everyone else to do my college assignments. However, I kept at it. I remember going to sleep around 3:00 a.m. to write and edit my writings. Then, I was introduced to the world of blogging.
I read some of my entries when I first started blogging, and I must say that I was an awful Writer. I cringe reading some of the things that I wrote. Horrible grammar, spelling mistakes, and my blog posts didn’t flow. But, one thing was noticeable — my writing improved the more I kept reading on. Also, I got an internship as a think tank where I had to heavily edit many reports, and that helped tremendously. A major part of writing is being a good Editor. The more I edited; the better Writer I became. By being a Technology lover, technical writing came easy because I had a passion for it that made me want to get better at it. I could understand the Developers and write about it.
I hope that by blogging and reading, my cousin will improve his reading and writing. If he continues to do it, then I know that he will. It’s rare to be a natural in something. More than likely, the way a person becomes an expert is by practicing. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect.
Photo Credit: Learning how to write …, originally uploaded by Daphne Ouwersloot.
